Daily Edition

A fistful of adaptations of romance novels fail to unseat the Vin Diesel-starrer at Chinese theaters.

Furious 7 raced ahead of a chasing pack of domestic romantic comedies during the intensely competitive May Day holiday weekend in China, adding another $45.63 million to bring its box office gross to $370.83 million.

After 22 days in Chinese theaters, the movie is cementing its position as the biggest ever in the world's second-biggest film market.

The Universal action movie had 223,230 screenings, according to data from research group Entgroup, and 7.18 million admissions.

Behind Furious 7 came three close contenders.

In second place was the Chinese drama You Are My Sunshine, which took $35.73 million in its first four days on release for a cume of $37.75 million once strong pre-sales are added in.

Sunshine, which features popular Hong Kong actress Angelababy and her real-life boyfriend Huang Xiaoming, as well as Dong Dawei, had 180,513 screenings and 6.7 million admissions.

The movie is an adaptation of the popular novel, Silent Separation, and was previously a TV drama.

Close behind that came the coming-of-age romance The Left Ear, which took $32.74 million for a cume of $64.44 million after 10 days, with 22,4791 screenings and 5.96 million admissions.

The movie marks Alec Su's directorial debut and is based on Rao Xueman's novel of the same name.

Helios by Longman Leung and Sunny Luk, a high-octane action thriller about cops, professors and arms dealers trying to gain control over a weapon of mass destruction in Hong Kong, took $20.72 million in its opening four days, with 101,873 screenings and 3.24 million admissions.

The $26 million movie features some big-name Asian stars, including Hong Kong's Jacky Cheung and Nick Cheung, South Korean heartthrob Choi Si-won and Zhang Zhen from the mainland.

DreamWorks Animation's Home took another $13.29 million for a cume of $21.35 million after its first full week in China, with 89,588 screenings and 2.34 million admissions.

Easternlight's Wolf Warriors, directed by and starring martial artist Wu Jing, was behind that, adding $1.81 million for cume of $85.96 million, followed by Li Yu's Ever Since We Love, which has grossed $23.6 million after 17 days on release.

The Arnold Schwarzenegger-starrer Sabotage added $1.26 million for a cume of $3.79 million, with the top 10 rounded out by local movies Lovers & Movies and Murmurs of the Heart.

Looking ahead, Avengers: Age of Ultron opens on May 12, and Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo have been in China to promote the movie, so Hollywood's take could be in line for a further boost next month.